Brownie Pudding: An Adventure Using Boiling Water

Unbaked, but seriously still delicious.

You know those times when you just absolutely have to eat something sweet and chocolatey? And how maybe, since you have a deep, profound love for all things bread pudding (which may or may not have once ended with you throwing allergy concerns to the wind and chowing down on a serving of bread pudding from Sweet Mandy B's that involved caramel?) that sometimes means what you want is something bready and puddingy?

Of course you have. Sometimes, even, you've had it at a late hour of the day. Sometimes, you've had this craving when there is precious little in the house to sate any of your desires.

Thank goodness for my 1950's edition of The General Foods Kitchens Cookbook. I know you've heard me sing it's praises before, but I intend to continue doing so for a while. I just forgot. Well, forget no more! I had just the day before read about Brownie Pudding. And, lo, we had all the ingredients.

Bonus: the recipe called for boiling water to be poured on top of the batter, which would make a chocolate sauce. I was enthralled, skeptical, and excited. Most of all, I wanted my freshly baked, sweet, chocolatey, puddingy dessert. After this, you probably will too.

So, boiling water goes ON the batter you say? Sure. I'll try that.

The Players:
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 tbs cocoa (or, if you were me, a little more than this of hot chocolate mix. sorry, humble women of general foods kitchens. please, don't be me about this.)
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 tbs melted butter (mine was salted, oh sin of baking sins, but if you are doing it properly then just sprinkle in some salt.)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- chopped walnuts (optional or use whatever type of nuts you'd like or any other addition, actually)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar (or, if you don't have any, granulated sugar will work as well but I used brown sugar)
- 2 tbs cocoa (again, see hot chocolate mix note)
- 3/4 cup boiling water

The Game:

Mix flour, baking powder, 1/3 cup (granulated) sugar, and one tablespoon cocoa. Then add the milk, butter, and vanilla. Mix until smooth, add nuts, and pour into the greased (mine was 6x9) baking dish. Mix the brown sugar and the other two tablespoons of cocoa together then sprinkle over the batter, also sprinkle a little bit of nuts over it, and then pour the boiling water over the top. This makes a chocolate sauce at the bottome when done cooking, which is impressive to me.

Bake at 350F for thirty to forty minutes, then cool before serving (recipe suggests a half hour, I was not nearly so patient...).

It smells even better than it looks, trust.

We loved this hot, we loved this cold, and I particularly loved this with the fridge door partially open scarfing down a couple bites because maybe I had to bolt out the door to work in absolutely no time at all.

The point is, it was always delicious. And you will likely love it.

Patty Cake, Patty Cake...

Well, okay, patty pan squash rather...but you can imagine how the imagine takes off!


I found these beauties at the farmer's market a few weeks ago (back when I made this dish) and was so delighted that a) a stall was still open even after I got out of work and b) that they had this pile of these for about two dollars. I can't remember having ever actually cooked or eaten them before, but when my dad came to visit not too long ago he'd been telling me about this. So I was pretty pleased.

I decided that simple was the way to go, mostly because I wanted full on natural flavors. So I set about making a simple, baked squash dish and ended up making a bitchin', simple, baked squash dish.



INGREDIENTS

- patty pan squash (tops and bottoms cut off, then either chopped or sliced as you like) (i think i had six or seven?)
- onion, chopped
- one or two potatoes, chopped up
- plenty of garlic cloves, diced
- chopped up tomatoes (i had two small fresh ones, quite small, and then about half a can of diced)
- fresh basil
- olive oil, salt, pepper, seasonings in general

Throw all veg and basil in a baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil, season, stir about, get a bit of a coating but don't drown it. Praise yourself in advance. Bake in a three-fifty degree oven for about forty minutes, until everything is cooked through and hot and delicious.

Die of joy when eating, while realizing how healthy this is!


Seriously, how delicious does that look? We ate it hot and loved it, I ate some cold at work and loved it, I even mixed the last leftovers with some pasta and maybe mushrooms (which, sadly, I'd not had any available the night before) and adored it. God, I love squash.